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USA Strategy for Axis & Allies 3rd
Edition

USA Turn One

If playing with Heavy Bombers, buy one factory, one bomber, two tech
rolls and save 2 IPCs.

If not playing with Heavy Bombers, buy one factory, 1 carrier, 1
transport, and 1 infantry.

USA is the 5th player to go, so what has already happened will
in large part determine some of what youíre able to do on turn one.

If Japan has fought Pearl Harbor II and has only a carrier, two
planes, and a battleship or less defending, then you should
counterattack with your bomber, battleship, 2 fighters, and transport.

If Japan has more than that defending in Hawaii, retreat your
battleship and transport, sending them towards the Panama Canal. Send
your Hawaiian fighter to Eastern Canada.

Send units in Alaska and Western US to Western Canada (unless Japan
is threatening an invasion with a loaded transport in Hawaii).

Send units in Central US to Eastern US.

Send Panamanian destroyer to Eastern US

If UK invaded Algeria, send Eastern US fleet and units all to
Algeria.

If UK did NOT invade Algeria, send them all to Eastern Canada, with
the exception that if Germany would likely have no naval units and no
bomber that could attack off the coast of French West Africa two turns
from now, then position one transport in Sea Zone 9 off the coast of
Newfoundland (where it could potentially invade French West Africa on
your next turn).

If the China forces are still alive, try to use them to take a
Japanese territory or two, and consider moving Sinkiang forces up
(depending on positioning of Japanese forces).

If China forces are not alive, leave Sinkiang units where they are.

Build factory in Sinkiang, everything else in Eastern US.

USA Overall Strategy

Keys to winning:

1. Heavy Bombers

2. Maintain Pipeline of Troops to Europe

3. Keep pressure off Russia

Heavy Bombers are unstoppable. They are the single biggest flaw in
the game. I say they are a flaw because they completely unbalance the
game. They are so dominant because once you get to the point that you
have enough heavy bombers, you canít be beat, unless the other side
also has a stack of heavy bombers. While arguably heavy bombers are the
optimal strategy for almost every player, they definitely are the best
strategy for the US, because the US has no immediate threat, plenty of
income, and difficulty in getting units into action quickly. Get heavy
bombers quickly, and spend every IPC (not being spent in a Sinkiang
factory) on more bombers. Then strategic bomb Germany to smithereens.

The conventional strategy of sending troops to Europe to help Russia
defend herself, then contain and finally attack Germany is still a good
one. The problems confronting this strategy are mainly that the Atlantic
has gotten bigger, making it harder for your fleets to crisscross,
loading and unloading troops. The shortest pipeline is for you to march
your units up into Eastern Canada, and then have one transport fleet
operating out of Eastern Canadaís sea zone and another operating out
of Finland/Norwayís northern seazone. Each turn the fleets can go back
and forth carrying another shipment of troops. The math can be tedious
to determine exactly how many more transports and infantry you should
buy each turn to maximize your carrying capacity. Here is the simplest
method:

1. How many leftover land units do you have that arenít already
matched up with a transport?

2. Determine how many transports you are moving to Norway on your
turn (that number * 2 is how many infantry you can carry two turns
in the future out of Eastern Canada).

So if you start your turn with 2 transports in Finland/Norway, 3
transports and 9 infantry in Eastern Canada, 5 infantry and 3 transports
in Eastern US, and have 32 IPCs to spend on this theater, what should
you buy?

The 3 transports in Eastern Canada will transport 6 of the 9
infantry, leaving three infantry leftover. The 3 transports in Eastern
US will transport the 5 infantry in Eastern US, and still have room to
carry one of the leftovers from Eastern Canada, so that leaves 2
leftovers.

Next you have three transports that will be going to Finland/Norway.
One of those three could be allocated to carry the 2 leftovers, so youíve
got 2 empty transports that you need to fill before making any other
purchases.

Two empty transports cost 12 IPCs to fill with 4 infantry, leaving 20
IPCs leftover. A set costs 14 IPCs, so after buying one set (1 transport
and 2 infantry) that leaves 6 IPCs. Iíd recommend buying one extra
infantry that will have to wait an extra turn before it can be
transported, and upgrading three of those purchased infantry to
artillery.

That leaves you with 1 transport, 3 artillery, and 4 infantry

While Germany and Japan are focused on putting pressure on Russia,
the US should do everything possible to relieve that pressure. Building
the factory in Sinkiang allows the US to spend money directly on the
Asian mainland and position troops between Japan and Russia. Getting
land units supported by US planes involved in the back and forth
skirmishes between Germany and Russia allow the US to save Russia from
having to expend resources to take back those territories each turn. By
threatening to invade Western Europe, youíre forcing Germany to have
to defend it heavily.

Sinkiang is particularly nice for the US because itís positioned
two away from the coast and particularly French IndoChina, which is
where a large Japanese army is likely to buildup next to India. That
keeps Sinkiang from being easily overwhelmed but leaves them as a
constant nuisance to Japan.

The Allies should definitely contest Africa, but it may be that a
factory in South Africa would allow the UK to exert enough pressure to
take back Africa (particularly once the German Mediterranean fleet is
destroyed).

Canada should be heavily used by the US to position troops. Western
Canada allows the US player to backup Alaska, quickly move over to
Eastern Canada to get picked up by transports, and allows the US to
maintain a defensive posture over the Western US. Meanwhile Eastern
Canada is an ideal location to position US troops before they load up on
transports and cross the Atlantic for the European theater.